Dominic Richards: We went to Cambridge in 1987, I to study theology and Henrietta languages. I used to see her at evensong and at the Union, but we hadn't spoken. One day, as she was cycling past, I asked her to dinner. From then on we were inseparable.

We had what we first thought was a wonderful Bloomsbury group - I was engaged to another woman and also had a boyfriend, and Henrietta was having an affair with my fiancée - but underneath it all, it was very rocky. It's highly ironic, here we are today running Queercompany together and being cool about our sexualities. When we first met, it was completely the opposite.

While we were at university, the four of us also started the English Teddy Bear Company, so not only was our emotional life mixed up, our business was, too. We were very close for four years, but after Cambridge we drifted apart. Henrietta left us and got married. My fiancée and my boyfriend ended up getting married to each other. So that left me. The breakup was very difficult and I felt betrayed.

Then I bumped into Henrietta in a sale on the King's Road and we started to rebuild our relationship. At the time, I was extricating myself from the teddy bear company, which was extremely painful. I had stayed on in business with our two other partners for another five years and built it up to an annual turnover of £5m, but felt I had to move on. Henrietta gave me a sense that there could be life beyond it.

I was there through her coming-out experience. She had a husband and a child, but she was in love with another woman and she could no longer deny her sexuality. As we talked about our sexuality, one of the issues which came up was that we didn't feel represented by mainstream gay culture. I felt the answer was the internet, and four years ago secured some domain names. Last November, we finally put a business plan together and got funding.

I am totally involved with Henrietta. We literally had fallen out as much as two people could. It was absolutely miserable and horrible. It was a war of wills and silence, it was a form of divorce. Having gone through all of that, it makes you realise, if you can go through that and still have a relationship, then that's something special.

Henrietta Morrison: A lot of people say never start a business with a friend. But we've already done it and know how difficult it can be. When we set up the teddy bear shops at university, it was a nightmare. We were trying to run a business as well as being students. We'd be studying during the day and I'd be making bears and clothes in the night.

Dominic didn't sew and I'm not the world's best, and I was completely exhausted. I was almost thrown out of university. The accumulation of the stress of it all, and issues of sexuality to deal with, was too much. I came from a traditional background and was always the sort of person always doing the right thing. I walked out and that was it.

Dominic and I didn't speak for years. We'd see each other from a distance and avoid eye contact. Then we bumped into each other one day in Chelsea and couldn't stay angry with each other any longer. Soon afterwards, I came out and I very much needed his support. I had been married for three years and had a child, but realised I really must be a lesbian. It was a crisis. Not only was there my husband to consider, there was all his family and all mine. I felt I'd let the world down. Through Dominic, I got to understand that this wasn't a bizarre, dreadful thing to happen and there were ways of coping so everyone could be happy.

We are very open about our family - I live with my girlfriend, who is a wine expert, and my daughter spends part of the week with us and part with my husband, who lives nearby. We haven't faced any hostility.

For Dominic, falling out with the others and leaving the teddy bear company let him branch out, working in property development and at St James's Palace as Prince Charles's architectural assistant.

We can now be extremely creative together, sparking ideas off each other all the time. There is a lot of synergy, although we have different personalities. He is very driven and gets very ebullient, whereas I am extremely grounded and focused. The hours are long, but there is flexibility. People thought I must be insane launching a dotcom without a nanny, but I made a conscious decision not to. I can pick my daughter up from school three days a week, come back home, settle her down and then work into the night.